Ms. Vinita Prabhu, widow of one
of the alleged assailants, Suresh Shantaram Prabhu, claims that their allegations
against her husband is ‘all humbug’ and her brother-in-law has been kidnapped.

She says it was Baba who arranged
her marriage with Suresh, a marine engineer. Her husband was a very good man,
a great disciple of Baba. ‘He would never harm Baba’. He had a first class
job as a marine engineer. He came down last December as his mother was not
well. She died in January but since Baba didn’t allow him to go, her husband
had not joined duty again. ‘We never do anything without Baba’s permission’.

She had lived in the quarters
given by Baba for the past 12 years, even when her husband was away. Her two
young children study at the ashram school while her aged father-in-law lives
opposite in his own quarters.

Narrating the events of the fateful
night, she says her husband asked her to go to sleep and left promising to
return by midnight. He had never done such a thing before. ‘It was his fate
to die’, she says". She learnt that somebody had died only the next morning
from her father-in-law who had it from the milkman.

The brother of Sri Sathya Sai
Baba, Mr. Janakiram, told press-persons that an attempt by the slain quartet
had been made on June 3 but it did not succeed because the Sai Baba, contrary
to expectations, left Bangalore for Puttaparthi only on June 4. The attackers
had gone to Bangalore in a hired van to waylay the Baba.

According to a chief functionary
of the World Satya Sai Trust, Mr Indulal Shah, Sunday’s incident did not appear
to be an attack on the Baba, but one aimed at the rival groups within the
complex.

BJP has demanded thorough enquiry
into the attempted murder of Satya Sai Baba yesterday, a report from Delhi
says.

The Party Vice-President, Mr.
K.R. Malkani, said the attempt on the life of Sai Baba has come as a ‘rude
shock’ and said it was surprising that all the four assailants should have
been killed by the police. This is something extraordinary, he said.

For, in the absence of all the
assailants ‘we may never be able to uncover the conspiracy,’ he said, adding
‘It is elementary in all such situations that the assailants are nabbed and
if necessary hit and disabled but never killed.’

If the police version of the
assailants pouncing on them and brandishing daggers necessitating the opening
of fire as the only option is to be accepted as true, the ashram inmates,
speaking on condition of anonymity, asked why none of the policemen suffered
any serious injuries.

When this question was posed to
the Puttaparthi circle inspector of police, Mr. K. N. Gangadhar Reddy, he
said ‘you must realise the fact that we went fearing the worst. Imagine the
consequences if something had happened to Swamiji…’

Top Police officers, including
Hyderabad Police Commissioner H.J. Dura and DIG (CID) Ramachandraiah, who
were supervising the investigation into the abortive attempt on Sri Satya
Sai Baba’s life here on Sunday night, were tight-lipped, refusing to answer
any question on the incident and its aftermath.

The officers tried to evade questions,
particularly those from the Press and chose to repeat ‘investigation is in
progress and we are pursuing all clues.’ Several attempts to gain access to
the First Information Report (FIR) filed on the case were also thwarted by
the officers and their subordinates. As a result it is not known under what
sections of the Indian Penal Code the case was registered.

The police have no answer as to
why news about the incident on Sunday night was suppressed from the outside
world for over 12 hours till Monday morning, though it happened around 10:30
p.m. on Sunday…

The presence of Sai Baba’s
brother Janakiram and his nephews {viz. Baba`s} at the ashram on Tuesday was
noticeable as they often directed their ire over the incident at those in
charge of administration
of Prashanthi Nilayam.

‘He was so timid and kind that
it is unbelievable that he tried to kill Sai Baba,’ says a shocked Saroja
Krishnamurthy, mother of K. Sairam, one of the four assailants shot dead by
the police.

The killing of Sairam, a first
year M. Com. student of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSIHL)
of Puttaparthi, leaves many questions unanswered.

The hushed up funeral of Sairam…
also leaves enough questions unanswered.

Sairam, son of Krishnamurthi,
a junior Management Officer … joined SSIHL for PUC and had been a residential
student since then, ‘He was always shy but was recognised by Sai Baba as a
good speaker and Sairam used to give speeches to the audience in the presence
of Sai Baba.,’ she says, unable even to guess as to why Sairam tried to attack
Sai Baba. ‘I do not know why he did it. I do not know who threatened him into
committing the crime,’ says Saroja in a choked voice, adding that she and
her husband Krishnamurthi had been disciples of Sai Baba for the past 20 years.

… There is no shortage of conspiracy
theories doing the rounds. The largest peg for these conspiracies is that
the police killed all four assailants, thus removing forever the possibilities
of anyone getting to the truth from the horse’s mouth.

While the most widely circulated
theory is that the assailants were enraged at their abrupt removal from the
power centre of the ashram, others also suggest involvement of the immediate
family of the Baba.

Independent sources say that the
younger brother of the Baba and treasurer of the Satya Sai Seva Trust, Mr.
Janaki Ram, was the brain behind the conspiracy.

Mr. Janaki Ram is believed to
be casting greedy glances at the vast fortunes of the trust…

Indeed, the Baba had himself acknowledged
the vastness of his wealth by telling a congregation, in a different context,
that his wealth would drain out only when the banks of the river Chitravati
were shorn of sand.

Sources point out to Mr. Janaki
Ram’s delay in condemning the attack on his brother as a pointer to his involvement.
They said Mr. Janaki Ram tried to play on the grouse of the assailants through
Vijay Shantaram Prabhu, a close aide of Mr. Janaki Ram and in charge of the
vocational Centre, who in turn reportedly entrusted the job to the four disenchanted
disciples.

…

Three of the assailants, who are
suspected to have RSS-VHP (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh & Vishwa Hindu
Parishad) links, include E.K. Suresh Kumar from Kerala (who was staying at
the ashram after finishing his M. Com., in 1986), Sai Ram, a final year M.
Com. Student at the SSIHL, and Jagannath, a drop-out.

What has particularly aroused
the interest of the investigators is that during the controversial Feb. 24
visit of the VHP general secretary, Mr. Ashok Singhai, to the ashram, the
three assailants were deputed to take care of the VHP leader and his entourage.

Mr. Singhai had gone to Prashanti
Nilayam to seek the Baba’s support for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The Baba
had badly snubbed him, first refusing an audience and then agreeing to meet
him for a scant ten minutes. At the end of the meeting, the Baba bluntly told
him that there was no need for the construction of any new Ram temple. He
told Mr. Singhai that the Bharatiya Janata Party was playing a political game
in the name of the temple.

Mrs. Ratnamma (62), Jagannathan’s
mother, said it was unbelievable that her son could ever attack Sai Baba as
he was an ardent devotee of the Baba.

Jagannathan (29), a resident of
Gottehere on Bannerghatta Road, was a pre-university student at Whitefield
and later graduated in commerce from MES College in Malleshwaram. Having worked
in the computer stationery business for a while, he however left to devote
himself to the Baba when the business failed.

Mrs. Ratnamma said he had almost
become an ascetic…"

Jagannathan’s family could not
claim the body as the reached Puttaparthi only late on Tuesday evening. The
bodies had been retained until 1 p.m. on Tuesday after which they were buried.
Family sources however blamed the police for not having informed them in time,
despite having their address.

A distressed Mr. Kondandaram said
the police also refused to help in the identification of his brother’s grave.
He was told he would have to undertake the exhumation and identification on
his own as well as transport the body back to Bangalore at his own expense.
The disappointed family then returned without claiming the body."

When press persons met Mr. Indulal
Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Satya Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter
is purely internal and we do not wish to have any law enforcement agency investigating
into it.’

According to highly placed sources,
the sleuths are finding themselves in the unenviable position where,
on the one hand, no cooperation is forthcoming from Sai Baba and other officials
of Prashanti Nilayam and, on the other, they would have to investigate the
role of the local police. Questions are being raised about the way the police
indiscriminately killed all the four assailants. ‘We are definitely looking
into the circumstances in which police shot dead the assailants, a senior
official told the Pioneer.

The role of the police has come
into focus as details of the Sunday night incident clearly suggest that if
the police had made an earnest attempt, they could have easily caught all
the assailants alive.

According to the details available
now, the assailants, after killing two personal aides of Sai Baba and injuring
two others, panicked as the sirens wailed and the whole ashram was flooded
with lights.

The inmates then woke up and surrounded
the place… The frightened intruders then locked themselves in a room on the
first floor of the building. The Baba had quietly moved out of his bedroom
and shifted to a room on the ground floor. The question is: what stopped the
police from pressurising or persuading the intruders to surrender instead
of breaking open the door and killing all of them on the spot?"

June. 9: The Union home minister,
Mr. S.B. Chavan, who reached the Baba’s ashram around 6 p.m., immediately
called on the godman at Prashanti Nilayam and was closeted with him for lengthy
discussion. The home minister also had discussions with the top police brass,
including the Andhra Pradesh crime branch DIG, Mr. Ramachandraiah, who is
heading the investigation into the Sunday night’s attack…"

… The Andhra Pradesh Director
General of Police, T. Suryannarayana Rao, in an informal chat with newsmen,
ruled out the question of seeking CBI assistance (Criminal Bureau of Investigation)
and contended that the local police and the CID were quite capable of doing
the job.

He, however, declined to describe
the Sunday incident as an attempt on the life of Baba ‘we are not saying that
there was an attempt or not. As of now, officially we don’t believe there
was any attempt on the Baba. But we have an open mind and are not ruling out
anything,’ he explained."

On the younger brother of Satya
Sai Baba, who is Janakira Ramiah (also referred to as Janakiram, Janakiramaiah
and Janaki):

Baba’s younger brother R.V. Janakiram,
a landlord, is more forthcoming. Conducting this correspondent to the building
where the attack took place, he breaks down. ‘Baba never did anything for
the family. He did everything for others. See what they have done to him now.’
Baba’s nephew R. Vishwanath, manager of the State Bank of Mysore, Secunderabad,
says that other than getting the front seats at celebrations, the family had
no importance. All that shows signs of changing now.

The family feel that the ‘outsiders’
whom Baba chose to look after the ashram and the movement have let him down.
The family has now closed ranks and is asserting itself.

The presence of Sai Baba’s brother
Janakiram and his nephews {viz. Baba’s nephews} at the ashram on Tuesday was
noticeable as they often directed their ire over the incident at those in
charge of administration at Prashanthi Nilayam. Baba would not like to meet
the media as he had reservations that he might be misquoted, said Janakiram.
He said Baba always believed his devotees and that’s why he had handed over
all administrative responsibilities to them and not to any of his relatives.
‘See what those trusted ones tried to do to him,’ he added tearfully."

While the most widely circulated
theory is that the assailants were enraged at their removal from the power
centre of the ashram, others also suggest an involvement of the immediate
family of the Baba. Independent sources say that the younger brother of the
Baba and treasurer of the Sri Satya Sai Trust. Mr. Janaki Ram, was the brain
behind the conspiracy."

Sources point out Mr. Janaki Ram’s
delay in condemning the attack on his brother as a pointer to his involvement.
They said Mr. Janaki Ram tried to play upon the grouse of the assailants through
Vijay Shantaram Prabhu, a close aide of Mr. Janaki Ram and in charge of the
vocational centre, who in turn entrusted the job to the four disenchanted
disciples.

Top police officials hint discreetly
that there is more to the assassination bid than the power struggle theory
that is doing the rounds. They talk of ‘murky happenings’ in the ashram over
the last few years. In this context, the revelation made by a doctor of the
nearby Government Civil Hospital is startling. The doctor said a number of
unidentified bodies, particularly those of women, were brought to the hospital
from Prashanthi Nilayam by the police in the past. Post-mortems on the bodies
mostly revealed death due to suspicious circumstances and signs of rape, he
said.

Several of the investigating officials
complained of lack of cooperation from the members of the Satya Sai Trust.
When press persons met Mr. Indulal Shah, chief functionary of the Sri Satya
Sai World Trust, he said, ‘the matter is purely internal and we do not wish
to have any law enforcement agency investigating into it."

According to the police complaint
regarding the incident (the ashram authorities have intriguingly not filed
any complaint till date) the quartet of would-be assassins - Suresh Shantiram
Prabhu, E.K. Suresh Kumar, Jagannathan and K. Sai Ram - allegedly gained entry
into the godman’s residential complex on the pretext of personally delivering
a telegram. Baba’s personal aides - Radhakrishna, Sai Kumar Mahajan, Anil
Patley and Vishnu - were stabbed by the assailants. While the first two died,
the others were critically injured.

The Baba moved quickly to an adjoining
room and raised the alarm. An armed police party led by the local circle inspector,
Mr. K.N. Gangadhar Reddy, rushed to the ashram; the foursome hid in a bedroom
on the first floor. The policemen gained entry to the room by breaking the
doors. They fired at the assailants in self-defence, when the latter pounced
upon them with daggers, refusing to surrender.

However there is no clear evidence
to corroborate this version."

"…
the fact that everything is not hunky-dory in the administration of Baba’s
multi-crore empire at Puttaparthi has been brought out by Mr. K.V. Janaki
Ram, the brother of the godman. According to him, the attack was aimed at
Baba and was prompted by internal power struggles, jealousy and personal rivalry
among various personalities enjoying the former’s confidence and trust. ‘It
is time that these affairs were set right,’ he says.

Though Mr. Janaki Ram has nothing to say against his brother
and euologises him as ‘Bhagwan,’ who ‘loves all and is loved by all’, it is
evident that he is gunning for some of the ashram’s functionaries and would
himself like a share of the gold mine. ‘The security set up around Baba has
to be strengthened with government help,’ he adds.

The police, however, have virtually ruled out the involvement
of Naxalites and either RSS or VHP elements."

The officers investigating
into the alleged attempt on Sri Satya Sai Baba on Sunday night have examined
Subbappayya {a boy in his early teens}, an inmate of Prashanti Nilayam complex
and a prime witness in the case, according to a highly informed source. There
are conflicting versions regarding the opening of the doors of Baba’s personal
chambers on the fateful night. Union Home Minister S.B. Chavan during his
recent visit to Puttaparthi told newsmen that Baba came out from his chamber
on hearing some commotion on the ground floor. He scolded the persons creating
noise and returned to his room, bolting the door from inside.

This version gives
rise to several doubts. If Baba had really opened the door and scolded the
persons creating noise, why could he not intervene and avert the situation
leading to the four alleged assailants attacking his personal guards posted
at the mandir.

The alleged assailants
forced their entry into the personal chambers of Baba and attempted to attack
Subbappayya with a dagger. Subbappayya escaped unhurt as the dagger could
only pierce through his loose shirt without touching his body. It is learnt
that Subbappayya immediately closed the door, bolted it and alerted Baba about
the impending danger.

Even as the scuffle
was going on, the Baba was rescued by one of his students who was present
in the bedroom. The Baba was shifted to another living room on the ground
floor through a secret passage by breaking open the glass panes.)

Director General of Police T.S.
Rao told newspersons at Puttaparthi recently, that the police ‘were not
considering the incident as an attempt on the Baba. But the Baba’s brother
Janakiram opines that ‘it was definitely an attempt on the Baba’s life.’

It was on the Baba’s request
that the proposal to institute a CBI {viz. Central Bureau of Intelligence}
inquiry was shelved. The godman was surprised at the planning that went
into the attempt on his life. But he gave the RSS and VHP a clean chit and
told Mr. Chavan that they were in no way connected with the attack. In the
backdrop of these developments, the Baba’s brother, Mr. R.V. Janakiram,
appeared a thoroughly unhappy man. A member of the trust, he voiced concern
over alleged internal strife in the Satya Sai institutions and trusts.

A ‘few hundred’ bundles of
Rs. 500 denomination and a ‘few’ other bundles of dollars running into
several lakhs, were seen by one of the trustees of Satya Sai Baba’s ashram
inside the Baba’s chamber only a few hours before the incident.

However, there is no trace
of the money after the incident. Though the authorities are trying to
hush up everything, it was but a slip of the tongue on the part of Mr.
K.N. Gangadhar Reddy, inspector in charge of Puttaparthi Police Station,
that put Chronicle to pursue this angle.

Though Mr. Gangadhar Reddy
admitted to Chronicle that the money was indeed missing, he later
tried to retract his remarks. But it is now conclusively learnt that the
money aspect has not been taken into consideration in the investigations.
The Superintendent of Police, CB-CID, Mr. Gopalakrishnam Raju, also refused
to comment on anything. The only significant thing he said was that ‘nothing
significant’ had been achieve so far.

Further investigations by Chronicle revealed that it was not Satya Sai Baba who was the target
for the attack. In fact, it was Radhakrishna, the Godman’s personal assistant…"

Though Radhakrishna succeeded
E.K. Suresh a year back, he was a close confidant of the Baba for 15 years.
He had his finger in every pie of whatever Baba did. He soon became so
powerful that he once reportedly threatened one of the trust members ‘to
expose the misdeeds of the trust’. This, it is understood, had antagonised
many important trustees."

Mr. Shankar Shantaram Prabhu,
a retired flight lieutenant and father of the Prabhu brothers, told Chronicle that he was informed by his elder son, Vijaya Shantaram Prabhu - who is
reportedly absconding - on that fateful morning that a homan was
being performed by Radhakrishna ‘with an intention to harm the Baba, at
some secret place’. Vijaya also expressed that he should do something to
prevent any harm befalling the Baba, but was advised to mind his own business.

The old man also suspected that
the erection of floodlights around Baba’s mandir just two days before the
incident might be a part of the conspiracy.

Mr. Shankar Prabhu also expressed
apprehension that Vijaya might also have met the same fate as that of his
brother. On the conspiracy theory, he opined that ‘there are some vested
interests in the ashram trying to undermine the Baba. My two sons have become
victims of the vicious circle in the ashram,’ he added.

An impression is being apparently
created among the police and the public that the target was none other than
Baba alone so that they could escape attention of the investigating agencies.

This can be gauged from the
fact that Janakiramaiah, Satya Sai Baba’s brother and a powerful figure
in the trust, is desperately trying to project that the Baba was the main
target. ‘Otherwise why should the assailants choose to kill Radhakrishna
in the mandir?’ he asked.

But there is a common impression
among villagers and the police that the brain behind this whole sordid episode
had laid a dragnet to kill two birds with one stone.

According to eyewitness accounts,
soon after the alarm siren started buzzing, the MBA students, numbering
around 60, were the first to barge into the Baba’s living room. The students
reside in a complex opposite the Baba’s mandir. These 60 students reportedly
pounced on the four alleged assailants and beat them up indiscriminately.
It may be noted that the MBA students had disarmed the alleged assailants.

In the melee, someone reportedly
shouted that they be locked in a room till the police were called, following
which the four people were subsequently pushed inside the Baba’s bedroom
and locked in.

A local bank employee, who was
also an eyewitness to the entire drama, told Chronicle on condition
of anonymity that he heard the four saying from inside the locked room that
they were only trying to save the Baba. The four were held captive for nearly
an hour and thirty minutes.

Meanwhile, Janakiramaiah and
Col. Joga Rao, who is also one of the trustees, came rushing and conferred
with Satya Sai Baba for 10 minutes. Coming out of the Baba’s ground floor
chamber, the eyewitness said, Janakiramaiah reportedly told the students
to ‘lynch them’. ("Vallani kattesinaru, champeyundira…" They are
tied. Now kill them).

It was 11:30 p.m. then and the
cops arrived on the scene. The students backed out as soon as they saw the
cops. Janakiramaiah reportedly spoke to them for a few minutes. Later, the
cops ‘swung into action’ and killed all the four alleged assailants in four
different rooms, in cold blood, according to the eyewitness. Thus the entire
evidence was wiped out in a matter of seconds by the trigger-happy policemen."

I COMMENT ON THE Remand Report of the Superintendent
of Police, CID Cuddapah. Assuming that his findings have not been materially
contradicted, which is the position as I understand it, his report clearly
calls for a thorough and impartial inquiry into the deaths in Sai Baba’s
room. Any one of the following grounds would be sufficient in my opinion,
but combined the case for such an inquiry is overwhelming.

a) The contradictory eye-witness evidence
of V. Jagadish, contradictory that is to the local Police Officer’s statements
- the fact that he observed the broken door before the police arrived
and was possibly the last independent witness to speak to the deceased
makes his evidence significant and most material;b) The contradictory eye-witness evidence
of D. Peddireddy, contradictory that is to the local Police Officer’s
statements - he says that he broke the wooden plank that was holding the
door and saw the deceased in the room after he did so; once again this
is most significant material and corroborates the evidence of Jagadish;
c) The absence of injury to the CI and
the nature of the minor injuries to the other Police Constables is inconsistent
with their story of a struggle and their need to open fire, but is not
inconsistent (I deliberately use a double negative here) with the account
of Jagadish and Peddireddy;d The position of the deceased after death
is inconsistent with the Police version but consistent with them still
being in the room after the door was broken, as observed by Jagadish and
Peddireddy;e) The nature of the gunshot wounds to
the deceased are entirely inconsistent with the Police Officer’s claim
of self-defence but are entirely consistent with a very close range discharge;f) The fact that the bodies were moved
is sufficient to warrant an inquiry as this clearly shows that the crime
scene was deliberately altered after the fact;g) The absence of possession by the deceased
of the alleged knives after death strongly suggests that they posed no
threat to the Officers, although it cannot be ruled out that the knives
were dropped in the alleged melee;h) The evidence about when the shots were
heard: independent and reputable witnesses, Balachandra, Sahani, Vatsava
all say 1 a.m., which is consistent with the post-mortem report as to
time of death; this contradicts the Police evidence by a full 1½ hours
(11.30 p.m. cf 1 a.m.): this cannot be explained by any suggested error
in the post-mortem;

i) The number of rounds discharged and
the position of the bullets after firing show that some firing was not
directed at a specific target. Given the police assertion of self-defence
which, if believed, would suggest that the firing would have been carefully
aimed so as to avoid shooting their fellow officers (given the confined
space), the Police evidence as to the nature of their firing is incredible.

NOTE: Concerning the time of the attack,
Sai Baba said in a discourse about 3 weeks later at Gurupurnima about Radhakrishna.
"The messenger of death dogged him at 10:00 p.m." (See the journal Sanathana
Sarathi July 1993, p 175.) This may be fairly accurate, though roughly 10:30
p.m. is indicated by most reliable accounts.

The happenings at the abode
of the controversial godman Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, took an intriguing
turn with the revelation that the four assailants, who made an alleged attempt
on the godman’s life, were mercilessly killed by the armed policemen at
the instance of some important functionaries of the Satya Sai Trust.

The vernacular press on Wednesday
morning, quoting eyewitness accounts, came out with damning evidence against
the trust authorities. The news reports alleged that the police had resorted
to this, to hush up the truth.

A common question everybody
asks is why have the police and the investigating agencies have not ventured
to examine the prime witness, Satya Sai Baba himself, even after 11 days
have passed. When press persons posed this question to the Union Home Minister,
Mr. S.B. Chavan, he merely said that the officers had not felt the need
and that if at any stage of the investigation it was found necessary, the
Baba would certainly be interrogated.

Another intriguing aspect is
that the Satya Sai Central Trust, which runs the ashram, has not yet filed
a written complaint.

An examination of the pictures
taken by a photographer on the request of the local police, revealed that
all was not as natural as it appeared. Many of those pictures showing the
suspected assailants lying in blood also show pieces of rope around. A few
days later, the CID officials seized the negatives and reportedly went around
Puttaparthi and Anantapur in an attempt to seize any positive prints.

The Rationalist Association
of Andhra Pradesh has demanded that the police must examine Sri Satya Sai
Baba or ask him to file a statement on the death of six persons as Prashanthi
Nilayam at Puttaparthi recently. If he fails to do so, he should be arrested
and interrogated, Mr. K. Innaiah, President of the Association, demanded
at a press conference here on Wednesday.

It would be a violation of the
regulations under Cr. P.C. to hesitate to examine Sri Sai Baba, as he was
a direct witness to the happenings, he said. Politicians including the Chief
Minister, Mr. K. Vijayabhaskara Reddy, must stop visiting Baba’s ashram
at Puttaparthi at public expenditure, he said and criticised the Central
and State Ministers for their ‘attempts’ to protect Baba.

Sai Baba is said to have shouted
to the trouble-makers, "Fools, get out," before he bolted the door from
the inside, left the room through a back entrance and crossed over to the
eastern wing through an open terrace.

Having finished their job in
the interview room, the assailants managed to force open Sai Baba’s bedroom
door, flicked a switch to sound a siren, the existence of which very few
knew about till then. On a campus where devotees are hushed into silence
by the omnipresent volunteers of the Sri Satya Sai Seva Dal, the siren woke
up everyone. It alerted the residents of the adjoining Puttaparthi village.
The floodlights around the mandiram complex were switched on.

Soon thousands surrounded the
mandiram, wielding sticks and other weapons. They were restrained with difficulty
by senior members of the ashram. A police constable who arrived at the spot
was too scared to go inside to investigate.

The outside world gets to know
very little about the internal affairs of Prashanthi Nilayam, such as organisational
matters and the quantum of donations received; the system is so tightly-knit.
While responsibilities have been delegated to members of the Sri Satya Sai
Central Trust, the controlling body, Sai Baba himself makes all important
decisions and signs cheques. The organisation shies away from publicity
saying volunteer work does not warrant it. Press-persons are rarely wanted.

T.S. Rao refuses to admit the
existence of any evidence to conclude that there was a plan to kill Sai
Baba, contrary to the official note circulated by the police that it was
‘an attempt on the life of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Baba.’ This is only an indication
of the pressures the police are being subjected to by the organisation against
revealing any information to the media.

R.V. Janakiram, Sai Baba’s brother
and member of the Central Trust, has gone on record that a conspiracy had
been hatched to kill the Baba by way-laying him when he was returning from
Whitefield near Bangalore on June 4. However, he is in the dark about the
identity of the conspirators.

Parents of Boyapati Ravindra,
who is at large following the June 6 incidents at Prashanti Nilayam at Puttaparthy,
have appealed to him to surrender immediately: ‘Surrender and tell the world
what has been happening at Prashanthi Nilayam. Baba knows you are innocent,’
they said.

Aged parents Venkateshwara Rao
and Ramanamma, who have been asked to leave Puttaparthy by Baba’s personal
secretary Narayana, returned to their home in the remote village Ghantasalavaripalem
in Krishna District. ‘If I or my son say anything, it is only at the divine
inspiration of Baba,’ Venkateswara Rao claimed.

In a daring operation also filled
with drama the Nagpur police today arrested Vijay Shantaram Prabhu (45)
and Bothapatti Ravindra Babu Venkatshwar Rao (33) both suspected assailants
at large involved in the June 6 murderous attack on godman Satya Saibaba
at his Prashanti Nilayam abode in Puttaparthi.

Sources say that the arrested
duo, talking to the cops here claimed that they were innocent and had been
framed. They hinted at a larger conspiracy and said that their names had
been given to the police as they had vital information about the ‘misdeeds’
of those in power at the ashram. They claimed that certain people had gained
control over the activities of the Ashram and were apparently misappropriating
finds. These people control the purse strings and deal in considerable amounts
of money on a day-to-day basis as huge donations come to the Ashram every
day, they said.

Satya Sai Baba has surprised
everyone during his ‘gurupoornima day’ speech that there was never any attempt
on his life and declared that no harm would befall him. Significantly, Janakiramaiah,
one of the important functionaries of the Prashanti Nilayam and brother
of Sai Baba, said that, there was an attempt on the life of the Baba on
the night of June 6.

Family members and other relatives
of Boyapati Ravi, one of the accused in the attempt on the life of Satya
Sai Baba, have asserted that he and Santaram Prabhu ‘surrendered’ to Nagpur
police and were not arrested as announced by the police.

Ravi’s relatives said on Saturday
that he and Prabhu visited Vijayawada a few days before they left for Nagpur.

Ravi’s relatives who pleaded
anonymity said that Prabhu who had some friends in Maharashtra chose to
go to Narpur along with Ravi to surrender before the police there. They
did not want to surrender to the Andhra Pradesh police as they feared a
threat to their lives.

Sources close to Ravi’s family
alleged that the four persons reportedly killed in police firing at Prashanthi
Nilayam on June 6 were actually beaten to death by Baba’s brother R.V. Janakiramaiah
and his men. For certain benefits the local police hand-in-glove with Janakiramaiah
later arranged a scene as if they killed the four accused in self-defence.

The sources said Janakiramaiah
harassed Ravi’s father, Venkateswara Rao, who had been staying in Prashanthi
Nilayam for the last 8 years, after the June 6 incident. Though Venkatswara
Rao wanted to spend two days more at Puttaparthi after he was forcible evacuated
from Prashanthi Nilayam, Janakiramaiah threatened the house-owners offering
them shelter, the sources said."

Truth never comes out of India.
And this oft-repeated statement of ours needs no better proof when India’s
‘national’ toilet-papers - boasting of their tremendous capacity for ‘investigative
journalism’ - suppressed truth about the ghastly murders that took place
on June 6 night in the bedroom of Satya Sai Baba, India’s richest godman.

Even the ‘truth’ revealed by
the BBC was not reproduced by any newspaper in India because it is so inconvenient
to the upper caste rulers and particularly the neogi [?] brahmin whose office
is said to have given a direction to all editors to keep off Sai Baba.

DV Duty: This is what journalists
covering the Sai Baba affair here tell us. And that should once and for
all convince us that in India there is nothing like ‘freedom of the press’.
Every journalist who had been to Puttaparthi knows the truth but he/she
is under orders not to write. Hence it becomes our duty to reveal the truth.
What is the truth? According to the visiting BBC correspondent, Jaswinder
Singh’s on-the-spot reporting from Puttaparthi, the four alleged assassins
were not killed by the police, but by Baba’s own people. The BBC had quoted
the mother of one of the dead ‘assassins’ now living in the Puttaparthi
ashram itself. She was quoted that her son was for long fearing murder and
he was finally killed.

Ravindra Baba and Vijay Shantaram
Prabhu… were intensively interrogated by the Nagpur police before being
handed over to their Andhra counterparts, who had come here to take them
back to Puttaparthi. The details of the interrogation were made available
to The Times of India News Service. Prabhu reportedly told the police
that he and those shot dead by the police were all staunch devotees of Sai
Baba. According to him, a coterie of five persons staying at the Puttaparthi
ashram were misappropriating cash and jewellery offerings made by the devotees
to the Baba and [?] been duped of several lakhs of rupees in cash and kind.
When Prabhu and his associates protested against this, the five men threatened
them with dire consequences. The names of these five persons have been disclosed
to the Nagpur police. Prabhu said that he finally took up the matter with
the godman, who expressed his anguish over the development but said he could
not initiate any action against the inmates unless there was concrete evidence.
Prabhu knew the room where the loot was stashed before being taken outside
the complex. He, along with a few other devotees, planned to immobilise
the persons by using chloroform. It was also decided to burst crackers somewhere
in the complex in order to divert the attention of the guards. The material
needed for the operation was purchased in Bangalore. However, the moment
the men with the key to the room were pounced upon, they raised an alarm.
The coterie was alerted. It was then made to appear that an attempt on the
Baba’s life has been made.

(On Vijay and Ravi) After arresting
them at Nagpur on July 8, the AP police obtained a four-day remand for taking
them to Penukonda for production before the judicial first class magistrate.
During that period they took them to Hyderabad and unofficially grilled
them and got the entire story. But they have had to fight for the custody
of the two and have not been able to get confessional statements. Moreover,
with the ashram authorities clamming up, they have not been able to get
corroborative evidence either.

Vijay and Ravi are understood
to have told the police that they, along with their four slain colleagues,
wanted to stage a coup and gain control of the ashram so as to ‘free the
Baba from the clutches of the mafia controlling him’. They have said that
they wanted to bring to Baba’s attention the ‘financial misdeeds’ of the
trustees.

Another aspect of the drama
is that no ashram authority has preferred a police complaint and the FIR
{First Incident Report} is registered in the name of Puttaparthi Inspector
K.N. Gangadhar Reddy. Since murder is a cognisable offence, police moved
in on their own.

The FIR has gaping holes. For
example, Gangadhar Reddy says that at about 10.30 p.m. he heard a commotion
in the ashram and came to know that an attempt was being made to kill the
Baba. The police station is right outside the ashram and he rushed in with
a team. Yet, the four assailants were tracked down to the living room of
the Baba one hour later.

The relevant portion of the
FIR reads, "Four assailants rushed to the Baba’s living room and closed
door and bolted from inside… One door plank was broken open…. At about 11.30
p.m. , four assailants armed with daggers, suddenly opened doors, pounced
on police, attacked and caused injuries to HV 1129 and PCs 844 and 1302.
As police could not overpower them, in self-defence, SI Puttaparthi, HC
1129, PC 844 and 1302 and ARPC 581 opened fire, killing four assailants."

But the post-mortem reports
and investigations by the CB-CID tell a different story. In all 27 rounds
were fired. The bodies have all been found inside the Baba’s living room.
Since vital organs like the heart and the lungs were hit, the victims would
not have been able to move but would have collapsed and died.

Police photographs show that
the doors have been freshly painted, indicating tampering with evidence.
The walls and even the toilet bear extensive bullet marks. The bodies lie
supine in a pool of blood, but there are no blood stains on the trousers.